Maryknoll Vocation Ministries is a service to the Maryknoll Society.This blog aims to keep Maryknoll Formation Candidates andVocation Prospects abreast of discernment and Church issues.

April 4, 2015

What I Learned during my OTP in Taiwan

This
May I will conclude my two year Overseas Training Program (OTP), during
which I was assigned to the Asia Region. Most of my overseas mission
experience has taken place in Taiwan, though I was blessed to be able to
spend time at the Maryknoll missions in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, and
Mainland China as well. As I prepare to finish up overseas training and
return to the States, I look back on my Asia experience with a sense of
confidence in the Church and a great appreciation for the work
Maryknoll is doing throughout the continent.What I’ve found is
that the people in each country in the world - and this is particularly
true in Asia - are greatly affected by their local culture. This is no
surprise, of course, but watching how culture guides the expression of
the Catholic faith has been an amazing thing to witness. The great
reverence of the Korean people, for instance, was evident when I
attended the visit of Pope Francis to Seoul in the summer of 2014.
Cultural Japanese elements guide the design of churches throughout
Japan. And in Taiwan, elements of traditional and aboriginal culture
are inseparable from the expression of faith of the native people.

My
present place of assignment is St. Joseph’s Parish, a small parish
located high in the mountains of central Taiwan. The village in which
the parish is located, Dili Village, is inhabited entirely by 原住民
(yuanzhumin), the native aboriginal people of Taiwan. Although we are
located only a few hours outside of the large, modern city of Taipei,
being in Dili feels like being in a completely different world.

While
Mandarin Chinese is becoming more and more widely used, local
tribal languages can still be heard in daily life and continue to be
used in weekend and weekday Masses. People freely roam the village and
go about daily life, tending their crops of local fruits and coffee.
And the Catholic Church is the center of the community life, always
packed with people hungry to receive the Sacraments and listen to the
Word of God. While the people here have very little personal
possessions and resources can be scarce, a definite sense of warmth and
welcoming can be felt from the people, and working with them has been a
great joy.

Prior to heading overseas, I was excited about
beginning a new adventure and meeting new people, yet was most anxious
about not being able to provide enough for them or do enough to assist
them in their lives. We all have feelings of inadequacy, feelings of
fear that when questions arise we won’t have the answers, or when
someone asks for help we won’t have the capacity to help them. The
cure, I’ve learned here, is a sense of boldness, a sense of confidence
that the Holy Spirit will guide us and help us when we most need it. We
cannot be ashamed of our faith; instead, it is important to learn why we
believe what we believe and have the confidence to boldly proclaim
these beliefs. In Taiwan, as in Asia and in the rest of the world,
people look to the Catholic Church as a place of hope and a place of
guidance for their lives. Maryknoll Missioners who dedicate their lives
to the service of these people, such as those I have encountered during
my two years in Asia, are at the forefront of the Church throughout the
world. I pray that Maryknoll continues to heed the Gospel call of
serving all of God’s people, and as I return to the US, I do so with an
ever-growing trust in God and a confidence that His work will always be
accomplished throughout the world.